The New Lost City Ramblers: 50 Years – Interview with John Cohen & Tom Paley

The New Lost City Ramblers (John Cohen, Mike Seeger & Tom Paley) formed as a band in 1958, and this year marks their 50th anniversary. In fact, this interview, recorded on September 13th, 2008, was 50 years to the day after their first concert, held on September 13th, 1958 at a chapter hall of Carnegie Hall. On today’s show I speak with John Cohen and Tom Paley about their memories of the birth of the band, how it happened, how they met, began playing together, chose the name, got their sound, made recordings and started touring. John and Tom don’t remember it quite the same way, but some where in there lies the truth!

Tom left the band in 1962 and moved to Europe where he still lives. But he and John were both in New York where they played together at the “11th Annual Park Slope Bluegrass & Old-Time Jamboree” at the Society for Ethical Culture. I was able to catch up with them there and we sat in the basement and talked.

The New Lost City Ramblers have been a tremendously influential band in the folk revival of the last 50 years as well as in the parallel revival of interest in old-time string band music. Their enthusiasm for and devotion to the old-time sound changed the debate in the folk music world of the 1950’s and 60’s and made musicians and listeners take a much deeper and nuanced listen to the rural sounds they were hearing on records. The NLCR made urban, non-traditionally schooled musicians approaching the material, aware of not the just songs, but the style and challenged them to grapple with that issue. This is still a serious question and one that is very relevant today.
(Read the rest of my essay below, plus track information for the today’s show)

The Ramblers were and are a highly skilled string band, and through their concerts and records were able to share songs in a dynamic way with audience after audience. The members of the NLCR made deep researches into the world of folk music, listening, reading, talking with researchers and fieldworkers and gathering information in ways that few others were in a position to do. Everybody needs a good editor and the NLCR were in many ways the editors of the folk revival, shaping the narrative of material being performed, listened to and learned from. Countless musicians have not only enjoyed and learned from their records, but used them as a road map back into the trove of material from which they were drawn.

John Cohen and Mike Seeger of the The New Lost City Ramblers have also done extensive field work of their own, recording and promoting musicians such as Roscoe Holcomb, Doc Boggs, Cousin Emmy and many others. The NLCR have also had a profound impact on the world of popular music through their influence on Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and many other popular music groups.

This list is definitely incomplete, and exludes the names of many of the Library of Congress recordings they listened to. I really recommend reading the liner notes to their albums. To download the liner notes for the NLCR’s first four albums, CLICK HERE. To see them all go to- http://smithsonianglobalsound.org and search for New Lost City Ramblers.
(photo E. Smith)
John Cohen & Tom Paley rehearse for their gig on the 50th anniversary of the first gig of the New Lost City Ramblers back in 1958

6 Comments

This is Don Mallow writing…It was at my apartment on Chapel Street in New Haven that John Cohen speaks about… The place was packed…floor, window sills, bookshelves covered with people.. there was someone sitting on top of the refrigerator… I believe it was 1952, I still had my guitar (though I did not play) which I swapped in ’53 for a bicycle to pedal in Europe that summer…
It’s good to hear John’s voice and that he remembers that long ago event..It was the start of the hootinanies at Yale.

Can’t find way to listen to this interview. What’s the process to be able to listen? My mother was Hally Wood. I was raised around people & music like this & am interested in hearing this material. Thank you for your time & attention.